Friday, March 28, 2008

I am ready to roll. First big race of the season. I have been waiting all spring for this. Not sure how the legs are going to feel on a 88mile course but there is only one way to find out. Chris, Tom and I are rolling out tomorrow morning to Hillsboro. Weather calls for low 50's with partly cloudy skies. I still think it is going to be to cold to bust out the legs but I will just have to play it by ear.

On Wednesday we had ITT's on the little 500 track. I didn't do so hot. I ended up 10th, not to bad out of over 100 guys. I just have serious troubles spinning that fast on a bike with platform pedals. I have given up trying to be sweet at little 5. I guess I never really tried all that hard in the first place. I ended up putting up the my worst time in the 3 years I have riden Little 5. Isaac crushed everyone with a head cold. He is something else on the little 5 bike. Those guys have Miss-N-Out this weekend. Hope Isaac crushes it like he did in ITT's.

My mountain bike has not been getting the loving it should be. I think I am going to try to get out next week and thrash the trails. I hope to get in a couple mtb races in this summer, but it might be hard with the packed road schedule. Noticed today the elk grove is going to be money packed this year. I hope I got fast legs come early August. Looks like $35,000 is going to be on the line. Alright I gotta go pack and make some dinner. Cheers.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Friday: What a wonderful day. Skipped all 3 of my classes. Weather was perfect, somewhere in the mid 60's. Isaac, Valentine, and Jordan went from a ride. Thought it would be a great day for the forest loop, which it was. After my ride Pam, Isaac and I hit up the Frisbee golf course and played a round of 18. I was surprised how good I still was.

Saturday: Oh good old Little 500 Qualifications. One of the most stressful things I will ever go through. We went at 9:30. Usually a good time to go, but not this year. The track was super slow in the morning which ended up really biting us in the ass later. We had a clean fast run, but just not fast enough I guess. We ended up 16th out of 33 teams. That is 6 rows back, we will be wearing some nasty multicolored jersey and have a pit on the back stretch. Oh well. When all said and done I am happy with my teams performance in quals and just sucks about the bad luck. Partied it up a little bit last night. Played beer bong for the first time in year.

Sunday: Everyone woke up this morning a little bit dazed from the night before. John Meyers was still in town for break so we hit up Nashville 50. Weather was not bad until it started snowing on us. None of us were prepared, so it made the end of the ride a bit chilly. Hit a new record watt today which I was stoked about, and it was in the little ring! I guess my spin is coming around for little 5.

Recently I have been obsessed with Jimmy Cliff. His music is just so good. I will leave you with my favorite song of his.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Man have I been slacking with this blog. Sorry to the few readers that may come across this blog. To catch up a bit. Last weekend I went up to Chicago with Pam for her med school interview. We spent a few nights in Evanston and got some crappy rides in on the roubaix roads of the north shore. However on Sunday I cruised out to St. Charles for a crit at Lindenwood University. It was a nasty hard race for me at least. Legs are just not there yet. It is a bit discouraging with everyone around me riding so well. I am just hoping that my legs come around when the time counts. I ended up 15th somewhere in between the break and the main field in no mans land.(me getting gapped on the uphill)This week was spring break. We were blessed with awesome weather down here in Bloomington. Somehow I injured myself last weekend at the crit. I was struggling earlier this week with pain in my knee. Took some time off and iced it and it is feeling great now. We will see when I race tomorrow how it feels.

Been spending a good amount of time this week posting up at the Little 500 track. Busting out some hot laps and working on exchanges. Quals are next weekend and I am not looking forward to it. One of the most stressful times for a little 500 rider. 4 laps, 4 exchanges, 3 attempts.

I gotta go pack up for the weekend in Oxford. We will just have to wait and see how the legs will feel. First race in the new kits.

Monday, March 3, 2008

This report is going to be short and simple. Feel free to read my collegiate competitors blogs for more detailed race reports. Basically on Saturday IU worked that asses off to bring back the break of 3 strong ass riders. I was very happy with how the team rode. We brought back the break which had 2min in 16miles and caught them with 1km to go. Felt pretty good. However there were crashes and lots of yellow line violations in the race, which the officials decided to just DQ everyone. Weird call but I am not going to get into it.

Sunday was the crit. Flat 4 corner with some wicked wind. My Favorite (NOT!) 2 laps in I was sitting towards the back when some Northwestern dude decided he could not ride in the pack anymore and dropped off the back which created a large gap for my teammate and I. 30-40ft gap into a 20mph head wind made it near possible for me to get back to the pack. Oh well. I busted my balls to try to get back but I had no chance with the kind of horse power that was in the pack. Called it a day and drove back to Btown. Next weekend is my first USCF race which I am very stoked for. Get to race with the whole team. Kits are suppose to ship this week as well. I think some of us IU guys are going to head to Missouri next Sunday for the collegiate crit to score some more points for nationals.

Props to the A's girls this weekend who tore it up. Having all the mens A's DQed did not really matter because they scored 2nd, 4th,5th and 11th. Way to go ladies.